Thursday, 20 March 2014

Thom Driver's magnificent band Piper's Son are about to release their debut single: "Mining" in order to celebrate, for one night only, The Rebel magazine is teaming up with Klarita Pandolfi for a party on a boat.
The legendary Vic Godard of Subway Sect will be joining Piper's Son on stage to pay tribute to the late Lou Reed. There will also be a screening of Geoffrey Taylor's ten minute film, "Close" (which features songs by Subway Sect on it's soundtrack.)

Last but not least our extra special head line act will be Mathew Sawyer and his band.

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Specialized 3: "Mad... Not Cancer" is a 40 track album sold in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Many great bands and singers have recorded a new version of a song either written or made famous by Madness. Yesterday Bonzo Dog and Rutles legend Neil Innes came to London to work with producer/arranger/guitarist Micko Westmoreland on a cover of Prince Buster's song "Madness" (from which Camden's finest band took their name.)

The new version of Madness is sounding fab. The super talented and sartorial Terry Edwards plays keyboards and trumpet, Paul Speare plays sax...

and the bass on the track is provided by Madness legend Mark "Bedders" Bedford!

More details to follow shortly. Here's a few more snaps from recent recording sessions at Micko's place...

Sunday, 9 March 2014

Have you seen Sympathy For Jean Luc Godard by Francis Macdonald and Harry Pye? It's been getting a reasonable 100 hits on You Tube each day so far but that's not enough. Gordon Beswick filmed and edited the video and also took this photo of Francis and Harry's funsize artwork.

Lots of kind people have said kind things about the song and video. Here, in no particular order, are 10 pieces of positive feedback... "It left me breathless" (Julian Wakeling) "Great stuff" (Douglas Anderson)"Well done. Lovely music and artwork. Thanks for posting. Great singing on this video and well-written lyrics." (Adrian Bell) "Very sweet. A bon bon. Particularly surprising was that its 6m running time was v. effective. It maintained its dreaminess and standard.A crackeur!" (Paul Hamilton)"Dandy XXXX" (John Hind) "I love it, the song is so beautiful and so are the images. It's gorgeous, and hilarious too." (Clare Price) "Educational and entertaining - C'est fantastique" (Douglas T Stewart.)"This is Great!" (Gemma De La Cruz of Art & Music magazine.) There's also been a rave review from Mark Barton who writes for the God Is In The TV website: "Kissed with a wistfulness that sits shyly somewhere between the butterflies of love and the trembling blues stars, this lulling honey crusted nugget is caressed in a carefree flightiness shimmering and radiating feel good vibes throughout your listening space whilst speckled with a lazy eyed aura that’s subtly drizzled in an alluring 60’s toned Francophile pop aura." And another thumbs up from Roland Monger's ListenWith Monger blog... "Delightful stuff... The gentle repeated refrain of 'Je t'aime Godard' is a beautifully soft expression of love whilst the counter argument of 'Je n'aime pas Monsieur Guy Ritchie, his films mean nothing to me' shows off the understated sense of humour of Macdonald"

Update: "Sympathy For Jean-Luc Godard" is one of the tracks featured on the debut album "Bonjour" which is released on Hostess records.